PHOTO BY KURT MILLER, THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE/SCNG
UCR students stand arm in arm as they block Iowa Avenue at Blaine Street in Riverside in November. About 200 people were protesting some of the positions taken by President-elect Donald Trump.

PHOTO BY KURT MILLER, THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE/SCNG
UCR students stand arm in arm as they block Iowa Avenue at Blaine Street in Riverside in November. About 200 people were protesting some of the positions taken by President-elect Donald Trump.

The day after Donald Trump was elected president, students at UC Irvine organized a “cry-in.”

“This is an actual event,” posted an Asian student group at the school.

It was also, perhaps, just a start.

In what might be shaping up as an echo of the 1960s, campuses in Southern California and around the country are responding to a pending Trump presidency with all manner of mourning and protest.

Cry-ins, class walkouts, marches – all have become routine parts of campus life in recent weeks, a response to the election of a candidate who denied climate change, repeatedly made statements viewed as misogynistic, and called for building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

And, most of all, many college students (and some faculty and university presidents) are pushing back against Trump’s highest-profile promise – mass deportations.

Schools locally and nationally are rallying around the idea of “sanctuary campuses,” a loosely defined concept that, at its core, means schools will do nothing to help the federal government in any organized effort to deport undocumented immigrants who are college students or employees.

The anti-Trump push isn’t universally welcome.

Polling data show that people under 30 weren’t monolithic in their support of Hillary Clinton – only about half the demographic voted and, of those, 38 percent backed Trump. And as school protests continue, some conservative students are frustrated that many of their classmates – along with teachers and alumni and administrators – are vocally opposing Trump before he even takes office.

“It’s really unprofessional and immature for people in positions of power to reject the president-elect and to reject the laws and rules that America has followed since the beginning of our country,” said Ariana Rowlands, president of the College Republicans at UCI.

A group cry-in?

“It’s ridiculous,” Rowlands said.

But others suggest Trump could fundamentally change American culture. In their view, opposition is imperative.

On Nov. 22, Georges Van Den Abbeele, dean of UCI School of Humanities, spoke to a crowd of about 150 protesting students. That day’s event targeted Trump and the current administration’s effort to squelch protest of an oil pipeline in North Dakota.

When he was done, Van Den Abbeele explained that he sees Trump as nothing less than an existential threat.

“The future of the university – as an institution of free research and free exchange of ideas – is at stake.”

SANCTUARY PUSH

Even as students and others debate the merits of anti-Trump protests, the idea of sanctuary campuses is spreading across the country.

The demands vary from campus to campus.

A petition to UCI administrators, signed by more than 1,000 students, faculty members and alumni, said, “Many people feel under siege and live in fear of deportation.” It asks school administrators to protect all students and workers regardless of their immigration status; provide confidential counseling services for undocumented students, staff and their families; and provide legal services for the same groups.

So far, those demands haven’t been met. Neither of California’s biggest university systems has adopted a sanctuary campus policy. Still, the petition – and the sentiment behind it – echoes what leaders at the University of California and Cal State systems have already suggested.

In a statement issued just after the election, UC President Janet Napolitano wrote: “We know there is understandable consternation and uncertainty among members of the University of California community. We remain absolutely committed to supporting all members of our community.”

Earlier this month, Napolitano told the Board of Regents that she formed a group to address potential changes to immigration policies that a Trump administration might adopt that could affect students living in the country illegally.

Meanwhile, at schools such as UCI, UCLA and UC Riverside campus police already don’t detain, question or arrest individuals solely because they lack documentation, and they do not inquire about students’ immigration status. And, in California, public schools can offer financial aid for academically qualified students who are undocumented.

Cal State schools work under similar policies.

“We are deeply committed to fostering a campus community that is safe and welcoming for everyone,” said Timothy White, chancellor of the Cal State system, during a recent meeting in Long Beach.

The Cal State system, the largest in the nation, with campuses in Fullerton, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Northridge and San Bernardino, is not “in the business” of enforcing federal immigration laws, White said.

Such comments comfort some; others argue it’s not enough.

“We need something more than just a statement,” Van Den Abbeele said.

That might not be far off.

Pomona College President David Oxtoby is leading a national protest effort that’s gained the support of more than 300 college and university presidents. They’ve signed a petition asking for the continuation of the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Essentially, DACA offers temporary work permits and other relief from deportation for people who were brought into the country as children. As of 2015, there were nearly 250,000 undocumented undergraduate students in the the United States, according to a UCLA report, The UndocuScholars Project. More than 1,000 undocumented students are connected to programs that help the undocumented at UC Riverside, UCLA and UCI, while hundreds more are connected to similar programs at Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Los Angeles.

Though Trump has said his administration initially will target criminals for deportation, he promised repeatedly during his campaign that he would repeal DACA and, so far, has said nothing to indicate he’s changed that goal.

Oxtoby’s petition describes the continuation and support of DACA students as a “moral imperative” and a “national necessity.”

BEYOND IMMIGRATION

College administrators look at the protests and see frustration about the coming Trump presidency that goes beyond immigration.

“Many of our students are feeling anxiety … and some are literally experiencing feelings of hopelessness,” said Jim Sandoval, vice chancellor for student affairs at UC Riverside.

It’s not only minority students fearful of the anti-Muslim, anti-Mexican rhetoric that dominated Trump’s campaign, Sandoval added.

“A lot of students at the campus are very attuned to environmental issues and sustainability, and have directed their studies to that,” Sandoval said.

In a campuswide email he suggested people of all political views “find ways to support each other.”

“Some members of our community will find the results distressing if not traumatizing,” Parham wrote of the election.

“Conversely, other members of our Anteater family will want to celebrate the outcome and the opportunity this election presents to move particular agendas forward.

“We also want to acknowledge their feelings of joy, delight, relief, gratitude, and even surprise at the outcomes we have all realized as a nation. They too will need safe spaces to express their thoughts and feelings, and experience the moment in individual and collective ways.”

Since the election, there have been reports of increased hate crimes across the country, many on college campuses.

A coalition of organizations, including Palestine Legal, an organization dedicated to the Palestinian cause, sent a letter last week to UC leader Napolitano saying anti-Muslim harassment and violations of free speech have increased since Trump’s election.

They blame Trump’s election rhetoric as well the UC Regents’ own policies and called on the board to repeal or rewrite its Statement of Principles against Intolerance, among other things.

Meanwhile, the Amcha Initiative, a Santa Cruz-based organization that tracks anti-Semitism at colleges, said since the election it had recorded nearly 40 anti-Semitic incidents on U.S. campuses, including UC San Diego, the University of Florida and New York University.

For many students, protesting or not, the election remains a constant – maybe even a growing – point of contention.

“We need to protect the people who are being targeted,” said Taylor Chanes, a member of UCI’s Associated Students governing board, who has attended some of the protests on the Irvine campus.

But UCI Republican club leader Rowlands is increasingly frustrated with the protesters.

The school’s Republican club wants to share information about the GOP’s immigration policies with the campus community: “It’s not just ‘Deport the Mexicans.’ That is not at all what (the GOP’s) immigration policy is,” she said.

In the coming months, as Trump’s policies unfold, the club plans to post information But instead of using a website or social media, the information will be posted in the heart of UCI.

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